D Day

On 6 Jun 1944, now known as D-Day, General Dwight Eisenhower, then supreme commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in WW II gave the go-ahead for the massive invasion of Europe called Operation Overlord.
Nazi Germany controlled most of Western Europe. Allied forces, numbering 156,000, were poised to travel by ship or plane over the English Channel to attack the German army dug in at Normandy, France, on 5 June. Eisenhower had a window of only four days of decent weather in which an invasion would be possible. When bad weather hit the channel on 4 June, Eisenhower wrestled with the idea of postponing. Weather conditions were predicted to worsen over the next two weeks and he had thousands of personnel and thousands of tons of supplies ready to go. After a promising but cautious report from his meteorologist at 9:45 p.m. on 5 June, Eisenhower said to go.
That night, Ike, composed a solemn and inspirational statement that was delivered the next day as a letter into the hands of every soldier, sailor and airman set to embark. Reminding the men that the eyes of the world are upon you and that their opponents would fight savagely, Ike exhorted them to be brave, show their devotion to duty and accept nothing less than victory! In closing, he wished his troops good luck and sought the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. At the time, no one knew that, along with that statement, Eisenhower had also scribbled a note in which he accepted all blame in case the mission failed.
On 8 June 1944, after years of planning, preparation and placating egos among his military peers, Eisenhower was able to report that the Allies had made a harrowing and deadly, but ultimately successful, landing on the beaches of Normandy. Less than a year later Germany surrendered.